Dennis Joel Smith, 15, schoolboy, helped to save Roy A. Haney, 13, from falling, Amory, Mississippi, January 22, 1966. Roy lost his footing and began sliding down the face of a very steep bluff, but five feet below the top he caught hold of the stump of a small tree an inch in diameter. Unable to obtain footing on the frozen ground, he hung from the stump 95 feet above an ice-covered creek and called for help from his companion, Dennis, Herbert Maxwell Word, Jr., and Jimmy Lynn Haney, a cousin. They ran to the edge of the bluff. Dennis lay prone, grasped a small tree two feet below the top of the bluff and lowered himself down the slope until he hung by his hands three feet from Roy. He found very precarious purchase for one foot. Removing one hand from the tree, which also was an inch in diameter, Dennis took hold of Roy by the wrist. While Dennis thus supported Roy, Jimmy took a prone position atop the bluff. Herbert, the largest of the boys, lay behind Jimmy and grasped his ankles. Jimmy slid headfirst down the slope until he could reach Roy. Herbert’s elbows then were at the edge of the bluff. Roy extended one hand to Jimmy, who took hold of it. Removing his other hand from the tree stump and from the grasp of Dennis, Roy gripped Timmy’s wrist. Herbert then wriggled backward, rose to a kneeling position, and pulled Jimmy and Roy upward until the former was atop the bluff. Holding Jimmy, Herbert reached over the edge of the bluff and took hold of Roy by the wrist. Jimmy also rose to a kneeling position with Roy still holding to him. Jimmy and Herbert pulled Roy the rest of the way up the slope. Herbert, with Jimmy and Roy holding his feet, then aided Dennis to the top of the bluff
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